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Svevo, Italo

Svevo, Italo ē´tälō zvā´vō [key], 1861–1928, Italian novelist, whose real name was Ettore Schmitz, b. Trieste. A businessman, he wrote several works of fiction, but remained practically unknown until discovered by James Joyce . His fiction is psychological and introspective, his characters mainly narcissistic, and his style witty. His best-known work, which has been called Italy's first modernist novel, is La coscienza di Zeno (1923, tr. The Confessions of Zeno, 1930, and Zeno's Conscience, 2001) also translated are Una Vita (1892, tr. A Life, 1963), Senilità, (1898 tr. As a Man Grows Older, 1949, rev. tr. 1977, repr. 2001 tr. Emilio's Carnival, 2001), and Una burla riuscita (1928, tr. The Hoax, 1929).